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Typically, we would wait to preview the State Board of Education (SBOE) meeting in the Hotline edition closest to the date of the meeting. However, there is a hotly anticipated hearing happening at the board’s next regular meeting, Sept. 10-13, and we need our members engaged and taking action in advance of the meeting.
Regular Hotline readers will be familiar with our extensive coverage of House Bill 1605 as it made its way through the legislative and rulemaking processes. More recently, there has been ample reporting on the open education resources (OER) developed by the Texas Education Agency (TEA) as part of the bill’s requirements. These materials submitted for review for English language arts and reading contain what many consider an inappropriate amount of content related to the Bible and the teachings of Christianity.
This was first discussed publicly at the House Public Education Committee interim hearing when Rep. James Talarico (D-Austin) challenged TEA Commissioner Mike Morath on both the scope and bias of these references.
What’s In the TEA OER Materials
The Texas Freedom Network, a group founded in part to monitor the actions of the SBOE as they pertain to religious freedom in our schools, has published a comprehensive review of the proposed OER materials and identified five overarching and problematic themes:
- The materials overemphasize Christianity while giving little coverage to other religions or belief systems.
- The references to Christianity and its influence and impact whitewash and distort historical truth.
- Lessons subtly portray Christian faith claims as straightforwardly true, opening the curriculum to the charge that it is meant to proselytize students.
- Detailed Bible lessons are forced into the materials even when they are both unnecessary and unwarranted.
- Religious freedom is vital to American democracy, but the materials distort the role of this freedom in the nation’s founding while downplaying the importance of other foundational liberties, such as the freedom of speech.
Teachers, according to the bill, would not be found in violation of the Establishment Clause (separation of church and state) if the teacher used only instructional materials adopted by the state and implemented “with fidelity.” This clearly flies in the face of academic freedom — both our abilities to teach the truth and to meet our students where they are — and freedom from religion, respecting whichever faith tradition a teacher or student may follow. While these high-quality instructional materials remain technically optional, the financial incentive to adopt and use the state-published OER is a powerful temptation for cash-strapped districts.
Ways You Can Take Action
The SBOE agenda is not yet published but based on previous meetings, we anticipate that the hearing for these TEA OER materials, along with all other publications up for consideration, will be held on Tuesday, Sept.10.
- Sign up to testify (in-person only). We will hold a virtual training for those committed to coming to Austin. We cover signing up to testify and strategies for crafting your testimony.
- Write to your SBOE member. It is vital you voice your opposition to these materials being adopted for Texas public schools even if you cannot attend the meeting in person. You can find out who represents you and send your own letter or use our action to quickly voice your concerns to the board.
We will have more details in next week’s edition of the Hotline including a more detailed preview of the full agenda.